Marrying Off My Wifey

Odd title for a post? Well, it’s an odd relationship between Cyn and me. We met in Second Life at a club we both used to frequent (and where I worked for year). We were casual acquaintances, only talking in local chat until one night, I bumped into her in a shop where we were stalking Lucky Chairs. (For those unfamiliar with a Lucky Chair, it is a chair that generates random letters for a period of time. If the initial of your first name comes up and you sit on the chair, you win the prize displayed). At some point, a noobie (a new resident of Second Life) came in and said, “I’m new.” Cyn said, “I’m not,” and we both laughed. The noobie then asked where he could open a box. Cyn replied (truthfully), “At a sandbox.” The noobie, obviously not believing her, unwisely commenced to calling her names that would make a trucker blush. Before I could even type, “Uh oh,” Cyn, who just happened to have a giant frying pan in her hand, walloped him, sending him flying across the store (NB: this does not cause permanent damage to the person being…umm…fried). Through fits of laughter, we bonded as he came back time after time and she took random potshots at him whenever he got within range. To make matters better or worse (depending on your perspective, and ours was of near-drunken laughter), I invited a friend to come grab a prize when her letter came up. Unfortunately, she landed between Cyn and the noobie as he made an appearance, and she ended up in the line of fire, eventually coming to rest in a neighbouring store. By this time, I, at least was at the snorting stage and my sides ached for days.

That’s just a bit of background, and the story goes on. How I came to be Cyn’s wifey (and she mine) occurred another night in the club. At the time, I wore a titler – floating text over my head that allows other residents to change what is written there at random times. I was away from my keyboard (AFK) when that opportunity arose. Cyn grabbed it to title me “Cyn’s Wifey”. And each time it came up throughout the night, she quickly changed it to a variation of the theme.

That was almost two years ago, and although our paths have diverged and we don’t see each other as often, Cyn will always be my wifey.

This weekend, she got married in Second Life. I actually met Tristan, her husband, the first night they danced. She asked me if I would take photographs of the wedding, and I happily agreed. My gift to my wifey, Cyn, and the man who has made her life a joy.

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And finallly, my signature wedding photo:

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May you always be as happy as you were on this day, my wifey.

Now, get Tristan to go make us a sammich 😉

Weekly Photo Challenge: Lost in the Details – “2304 Rain” Revisited

One does a whole painting for one peach and people think just the opposite – that particular peach is but a detail.

Pablo Picasso

Earlier in the week, I blogged a beautiful place in Second Life called “2304 Rain”. While it is a visually stunning location, I am, primarily a portrait photographer. It’s rare that I take a photo that doesn’t include a human being. While I love to find beautiful locations for my backdrop, I always focus on the person, whether it is me or someone else.

For this challenge, I could have chosen to take a photo that had a person (me) as the subject and rework it so that the focus is the location. In this shot, the location is the star – the detail is drawn from the way I have cropped and processed the picture.

This is the raw shot:

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And this is my take on “Lost in the Details”:

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I was drawn to the floating umbrella when I picked this spot to shoot. It was a small detail in the original, but in the reworked image, it’s now the star. The umbrella has become my peach.

Hazardous

This title could describe blogging: since I began about a month ago, I’ve learned that blogging is hazardous to my free time. It’s not just the time I spend actually posting the blog – it’s the time I take to shoot the photographs, select them and process them for publication. It’s also hazardous to my friends; one of these days they’ll get sick of my blogs and hold an intervention!

But this title actually refers to the name of the sim where I took these photos. It’s another place I found on the Second Life Destination Guide. The description provided intrigued me, so I had to check it out.

“Dream infinitely, remain fearless, but always seek hazardous adventures.” Hazardous is a mysterious and intriguing place to take a few photographs, hang out, dance, or just spend some quiet time reflecting. Seek it out.

And they weren’t wrong. I did find it mysterious and intriguing, to say the least. From the landing point on a floating platform you plummeted gracefully from to the main sim, I was immediately captivated.

I’m just going to share a few photos I took there – no commentary from me, other than to say, besides the last photo, I did very little processing (for me, anyway). The stark beauty of the sim just needed to be shown as simply as possible. I changed the Windlight settings, but other than that, these are what you will find if you visit this beautiful place.

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